The era of the popular church is over, according to a Munich Protestant theologian and professor of systematic theology. He could very well be right, because this would not only come as little surprise, but would actually be very convenient and therefore even desirable.
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Popular churches no longer have a future
According to a thesis by the Protestant theologian Jörg Lauster from Munich, the national church has had its day and there is no longer any future for it. After studying theology, Romance studies and philosophy, Lauster held a chair at the Philipps University in Marburg for “systematic theology” and philosophy of religion between 2006 and 2015. Previously, he completed his habilitation at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Lauster is currently a professor at the Protestant theological faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
The systematic theologian – to put it quite simply – deals with the effects of teachings and faith on people. Of course, this only makes sense outside the gospel, because there the effects of (true) faith on people are neatly described.
Understanding new opportunities
However, there is an opportunity in the decline of the national churches that the theologian now sees. In the changed structures there are means against “church depression”, according to the report printed by the Evangelical Press Service (epd) at the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN). The churches are now called upon to see their coming end as national churches as an opportunity. This also applies to the liberation from their “golden cage of the church tax system”.
In addition to a whole series of opportunities to be seized, the theologian also included the new relationship between church and state. In return, the state could recognize religion as an “elementary element in coping with human life” if the churches showed themselves to be accommodating in the question of state services. It is quite conceivable that the state would stand up for the welfare of the public in order to provide support to the religious communities. One such example would be government support for the training of pastors, imams and rabbis.
It grows together everywhere
The federal state of Lower Saxony is also striving for such a “converging structural change”. If the decision is to be finally made, a “Christian religious education class” will be held there for the first time in the 2025/2026 school year, as EKD reported. There would then no longer be any separation between the Protestant and Catholic denominations. This “project” receives political support in particular from the Lower Saxony Minister of Education, Julia Willie Hamburg (Green Party).
Such a step would also be the next step towards distance from the gospel. Catholic students know only too well that the Roman Catholic catechism was opened on their desks rather than the Bible. In addition to the de facto end of the former Protestantism, the last remnants of the former church as the successor of Martin Luther will now also disappear. At the same time, the fusion between church and state is taking place, as the insightful meeting at the Tutzing Protestant Institute showed(Info).
This, together with a new formation of church structures and the further interdependencies with the state, the structure “Papal State” is not far off.
Revelation 11 Coming Globally?
Whatever the actors’ desired goal will be, one thing no longer has any place in these visions of the “opportunities to be seized”: the gospel.
It seems that the once locally played scenario (French Revolution) according to the descriptions in Revelation 11 will soon be repeated. Since this phenomenon is not limited to Lower Saxony, Munich or Germany, but has found a global scene, the “Two Witnesses” described in Revelation 11 (Bible from OT and NT, Info) are likely to come to an abrupt end worldwide within a reasonable time. At least, promoted by the church and enforced by the state.
On the theological side, the alternative “mass religion” is already prepared. The “preservation of creation”. Just as the gospel was banned during the French Revolution and a prostitute was proclaimed the “goddess of reason” instead, nature and climate protection is also based on the basis of the “so rational” people. The guidelines for this all come from Rome. Pope Francis has already announced that the encyclical will be continued next October.
The demonization is already underway
Evangelism based on the Bible is already being condemned as a “spiritual act of violence”. Pope Francis denies the discipleship of people who try to convince non-believers (Swarajya, December 25, 2019). After all, today we are not “on a crusade of conversion by the sword.”.
This bold thesis was said by the head of the church that has an unprecedented number of victims on its (non-existent) conscience in its history. The background to the rejection of evangelization should be clear given the actual nature of the Roman Catholic Church (Info), but a certain dose of phobia might also play a role. “Those who insist that ‘the truth’ about preaching the gospel be preserved have always threatened the church,” Francis said in June 2021 (America – The Jesuit Review, June 23, 2021).
That the biblical prophecies will also come true in this regard is as certain as the collection bag after the mass of the “completely impoverished” Catholic Church. Then it is all the more important to hold fast to the truth of the gospel, to keep the commandments of God, and to bear the testimony of Jesus as it is written, for Revelation 12:17:
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
and Revelation 22:14-15:
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Bible verses from King James Version
